BEHIND THE SCENES

Sunday

Jul 27, 2008 at 12:01 AM

By LYNN ISRAEL of the Tribune's staff

Bluestem Missouri Crafts - the gallery started by five women - is celebrating 25 years in business this September with more colors than just silver. The shop at 13 S. Ninth St. offers art lovers such wares as bright red and blue felt hats, cobalt-blue stained glass and shimmering golden pottery.

The longtime downtown tradition began with a simple goal in 1983: open a venue for artisans to show and market their work. Today, the shop reaches out to support nearly 300 artists in Missouri and surrounding states.

"I think the key to their whole success, over a number of years, is that the people involved in it are artists themselves," said Laura Bullion, who became a partner in 2006 after retiring as the associate director of the Western Historical Manuscript Collection. "They know art, they also know the business, and they've been able to put themselves between all of these artists and the customers, and find the art that the customers want."

The original partners, Bullion said, were Mary Benjamin, Sue Luger, Sandy Litecky, Barbara Overby and Marilyn Vernon. The business is still owned by women: Bullion, Benjamin, Lugar, Litecky and Cynthia Messer; Overby and Vernon still produce art and sell their wares at Bluestem.

The store - named after a native prairie grass - put down roots when the artists gathered to sell their creations at local fairs and a now-defunct craft cooperative called Smithton Sales Co.

Bullion said the 25th anniversary celebration will include several fall shows as well as a "thank you" to all those people who have enjoyed Bluestem's art offerings throughout the years.

"There are still people who shop" at Bluestem "when the store was there," Bullion said about Smithton Sales. "We'll have a lot of people who come in and say, 'I can't draw a straight line, ? but they have a grand appreciation of what we have here."

Artists also appreciate Bluestem. In 2005, they deluged NICHE magazine with ballots, which then named Bluestem the Top Retailer of American Crafts from among more than 700 nominees in the United States and Canada.

"They must have liked us pretty well," a laughing Bullion said about the artists' votes.

Bluestem also continues the tradition, begun by the original co-founders, of discovering new artistic work with a Midwest flavor.

"They wanted to keep their offerings close to home because they knew there were many good artists in this region," she said about the original founders, "and they wanted to offer an opportunity to get those artists together and a venue for them to sell."

Typical of those artists is Danny Meisinger, a Kansas potter whose awe-inspiring pieces, some of them small, others quite large, were introduced at an opening reception Friday. The show runs through Aug. 31. See photos of his work on Page 6.

Bullion said she still is surprised by the artists who walk across Bluestem's threshold.

"Some days, you look up," she said, "and someone is bringing something marvelous through the door, and you think: Who is that?"

More progress on Ninth Street

The crowd-pleasing Hot Summer Nights Music Festival at the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts ended yesterday, but intriguing events are visible on the horizon.

? Arriving in less than two weeks, PACE Youth Theatre explores its new performing home on the MTCA stage with a season premiere of "The King and I" Aug. 7 through 10, followed by "Disney's Aladdin, Jr." Aug. 14 through 17.

"The Missouri Theatre is a perfect home for us," Mark Heisner, PACE board president, said in an e-mail. "We treat our young actors and tech crew like professionals. We expect a lot of them. Being in a newly refurbished professional theater is an ideal place to teach these kids the ropes."

For more details about the shows, call 443-0541 or visit www.kidsintheact.org, or the MTCA box office at 875-0600.

? On Aug. 22, the Missouri Theatre Film Series returns with a movie to be announced.

? On Aug. 31, the exuberant Wiyos perform at 7 p.m. The band employs kazoos, banjos and an upright bass to bring back old-time music with a style that defies description - well, sort of. Expect to hear vaudeville, ragtime, jug band, blues and hillbilly swing.

? On Sept. 6, Belly Dance United shakes things up.

? Also on Sept. 6, auditions will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. at Smithton Middle School for the MOSS Youth Orchestra, Children's Chorus, Junior Strings and The Treblemakers. For an application, contact Elaine Johnson, MTCA director of arts education, at elaine@motheatre.org or 875-0600.

? On Sept. 30, the Missouri Theatre teams up with The Blue Note to host a concert by punk folk singer Ani DiFranco, a musical ninja who delights in blowing apart what people think about this kind of music.

? On Sept. 20 and 21, the theater will host a screening of "Neither Here Nor There" about Bosnian refugees, a film by directors Kerri Yost, Beth Pike, Beth Federici and Stephen Hudnell.

Produced by Refugee Films, the documentary follows a single Bosnian mother and her three children as they try to integrate into Columbia. The events, at 7 p.m. Sept. 20 and 2 p.m. Sept 21, will include a chance to meet the family, filmmakers and soundtrack musicians.

? Progress also continues on the Missouri Theatre. Kanani May, MTCA director of public relations, said the rooftop reception area, which offers surprisingly fun vistas, will have decking installed, hopefully in August, by Huebert Builders Inc. And finishing touches are still happening in the upstairs offices, which include a reception area, music library, individual staff offices and a board room. It's a big change from the closets the staff members used to call home.

? In the same building, the Columbia Art League is making the move this week to its new quarters after closing doors on Tuesday. CAL's new quarters, with a 207 S. Ninth St. address, will reopen Friday, CAL Executive Director Diana Moxon said.

If you've had an art show open, published a poem or have any news about local artists behind the scenes, contact Features Editor Lynn Israel at lisrael@tribmail.com, mail your news to the Tribune at P.O. Box 798, Columbia, Mo., 65205, or call 815-1714.